flyboh I think you'll find British European was in the loco market operating as flybe well before the buzz take-over. It is true that they saw an opportunity after buzz pulled out of BOH and decided to operate similar routes from SOU. Notice they didn't choose BOH for their operation though.
BOH is a great charter airport and may do ok out of the odd scheduled flight but in all seriousness, the terminal is a bit mickey mouse and with regards to pax inbound to BOH, who wants to fly there? SOU has regular trains, buses, the M3/M27 interchange, nearer and quicker to get to London and a well established past.